I've actually been considering coming back to this blog a lot recently just because I've been learning a lot.
Anyway, to start off, I quite literally think in terms of an engineer. As most could probably guess, the source of my most recent praise reports and struggles are from my relationship with my stunning and amazing girlfriend. I imagine relationships like an amplifier (in comes the engineer speak). The thing about amplifiers is they amplify your input/output. So what you do with an amplifier is, you have some kind of input... say... in millivolts (thousandths of volts). Plug it into an amplifier and now you have an output in volts! This way the overall signal is magnified and easier to read and thats good. Good stuff amplified... sweet. But every signal also has noise or static and that gets amplified too. Bad stuff amplified... meh.
Well neither I nor my girlfriend are electrical signals.
So anyway, on to what I was going to blog about. A friend of mine just started dating last week (congrats) and asked what I would advise. After thinking about it I decided to tell him to "be a man"
Be A Man
I guess theres two aspects of this because my friend first thought I meant he needs to assertive and strong. Well.. yes of course. With the right issues of course. But being a man in this regard means being assertive and strong in what matters, important issues, not just all the time. For example.... I will do my best to make sure my girlfriend goes to church, bible study, continues to serve, meet up with others, read, pray, eat, sleep, and just not be idle in general. (not too hard at all with my girlfriend ^_^) With these things, I will hold my ground and not budge on my position but again I'm just a boyfriend, I can't make her do anything, just encourage and exort. But at the same time I'm not going to tell her what books to read, what to wear, what to watch, what to eat... etc. Unless I have a strong conviction about one of these, she is her own person with her own ideas and interests and preferences and i love it. I don't want to make her someone who I think I would like, I already like her and care about her, and that second part is why I don't budge on the important stuff. Ultimately, be strong because you care about her and want to protect her.
Thats pretty general but anyway what I really meant when I said be a man was.... suck it up. Be humble. One of the first bits of advice I got when i started dating was. Pick your battles. I remember a sermon from pastor Peter that seems relevant. He was talking about Christian division and majoring on majors, minoring on minors. He was specifically talking about particular theologies that Christians debate over. The thing is, its not practical and often not best to fight and die on every hill (issue). If you're going to die on a hill, then pick one. If you survive, theres always more hills, but choose the important one! And on each hill be humble. Honestly, a relationship is probably one of the most difficult places to be humble, but the most necessary. I've been told and I know for myself that actions speak way way louder than words, so be a man and do it. Be humble, be selfless, be considerate, understanding, sympathetic, encouraging, supportive, serving, and everything you should be anyway!
I feel like it can be overwhelming to be everything God's told you to be all at once. If you've been blessed with someone you love like I have, then what an awesome and easy starting point to really be your best for God, and in turn you will be your best for her.
By the way I am also way blessed by her and what she does and thats a post that can go on forever, this one was just about how I'm blessed with her (as opposed to by her? I dunno... makes sense in my head.... haha)
goodness what scattered post. I have no writing style, just type as i think....
^_^
